Tape snippets played in Blagojevich's impeachment trial

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is boycotting his impeachment trial in the Illinois Senate, but senators still got a chance to hear his voice Tuesday.

Doug Finke

On the second day of the impeachment trial, House prosecutors played portions of four secretly made recordings of Blagojevich's phone conversations.

The calls, recorded by federal investigators, involve Blagojevich; his brother, Robert, who is also the governor’s chief fundraiser; and Lon Monk, Blagojevich’s former chief of staff and now a lobbyist. John Johnston, owner of two horse-racing tracks near Chicago, is also on one of the tapes. At the time the recordings were made, a bill aiding the racing industry was awaiting Blagojevich’s signature.

None of the recordings include specific discussion of a campaign contribution or any dollar amounts. However, on one of them, Robert Blagojevich assures his brother that he’s been told Johnston is “good for it” and only has to decide which accounts to use. Monk also tells the governor that Johnston “is gonna be good for it. I got in his face.”

Rod Blagojevich is also heard saying he wants Johnston to act by the end of the year, a possible reference to the effective date of a new state law that limits some campaign contributions.

Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald refused to turn over to lawmakers most of the recordings his office has made in its investigation of Blagojevich on federal corruption charges. That includes the recordings of Blagojevich allegedly trying to sell President Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat.

However, Fitzgerald agreed that releasing the tapes heard by lawmakers Tuesday would not jeopardize the criminal case against the governor. Nonetheless, written transcripts of the recordings show that they were heavily edited before they were turned over. Fitzgerald had said material that has a bearing on the criminal investigation would be removed.

Transcripts of the tapes have been available for some time, but lawmakers said hearing the actual recording of Blagojevich made a difference.

“It shows the enormity of this,” said Sen. Dave Leuchtefeld, R-Okawville. “It whets your appetite for what else is on the tape.”

“I don’t think (the recordings) were as bad as they could have been,” said Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline. “One man’s shakedown is another man’s rough political business.”

Jacobs also said he’s frustrated with the process, both with federal investigators withholding information from the General Assembly that could be useful to lawmakers and with Blagojevich refusing to make an appearance.

“Without the governor here, it’s going to be hard not to vote to impeach,” Jacobs said.

“Personally, I’d be here to defend myself,” said Sen. Dale Risinger, R-Peoria. “Obviously, he’s hurting his case in the Senate by not having someone here to defend him.”

Most of Tuesday’s hearing was taken up by prosecutor David Ellis reading into the record a 76-page affidavit detailing the federal criminal complaint against Blagojevich. FBI agent Daniel Cain was given permission to appear before the Senate and testify to the accuracy of snippets of recordings contained in the document.

Senators had a chance to ask questions of Cain, but he declined to answer nearly all of them, saying it was beyond the areas where he was allowed to testify. One question he refused to answer was if any senators were captured on recordings talking with Blagojevich.

The trial will resume at 9:30 a.m. today. Senators will hear testimony about the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules and from Auditor General William Holland.

JCAR, a bi-partisan panel of lawmakers, tried to block Blagojevich’s expansion of health care programs only to have the governor ignore the group. Lawmakers contend the governor defied the panel illegally.

Holland is expected to testify about audits his office conducted that were highly critical of Blagojevich administration operations. That includes the administration’s purchase of flu vaccine that could not be imported into the country and eventually had to be destroyed.

Ryan Keith and Andrew Thomason contributed to this report. Doug Finke can be reached at 788-1527.

Impeachment Watch

What happened Tuesday:

The second day of the Senate impeachment trial featured lengthy testimony from FBI Special Agent Daniel Cain and snippets of four audio recordings of Gov. Rod Blagojevich allegedly trying to draw campaign contributions from a horse racing executive in exchange for signing a bill helping the industry.

What’s happening today:

The trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. The Senate will finish testimony from state Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, about alleged corruption tied to Blagojevich. Then it will hear from Auditor General William Holland on problematic audits of several state agencies and discuss the Blagojevich administration’s run-ins with a legislative panel.

Follow along:

Audio and video of the Senate trial can be found at the General Assembly’s Web site: http://www.ilga.gov. An audio stream is available at wuis.org. The trial is being broadcast on WUIS/WIPA, Springfield public radio, 91.9-FM and 89.3-FM.